I am originally from Argentina, so I am Latin and my mother tongue is Spanish. We Argentinians speak “Argentinian Spanish”, a special kind of Spanish which sounds Italian-ish (By the way, if you want to listen to our Spanish, here you have a song I like a lot by an Argentinean band. The music is beautiful and the singer sings super clearly). I love languages. I try to keep my French alive and I am learning German (sloooowwlyyyy, but I don’t give up!).

The official language in Sweden is Swedish, a North Germanic language spoken predominantly here and in some parts of Finland. “Hur bra är din svenska?” (How good is your Swedish?). Ahhhh that question is as bold as asking a lady for her age (kidding!). My reply would be “inte så bra” (not so good). My relationship with Swedish is special, certainly material for another -long and dark- post. Anyway, thanks to the Nordic Gods, Sweden is one of the countries with the best English on the planet. Everyone here speaks English. After the question “pratar du engelska,?” Swedes will shyly say “yes” and right after that, they will continue speaking perfect English, way better than mine, for sure.

So, I live between languages, and English is the bridge that allows me to communicate with the broadest number of my bubbles (friends, colleagues, neighbors). I started this blog to connect with both Swedes and expats. And because of that, the chosen language is in English.

Moving to a new country is exciting. I wanted to live abroad, so I am grateful for this opportunity. But it also brings a long list of challenges. One of the toughest for me is to accept and adjust to a new society and culture without neglecting and losing my own.
I recently heard Petra Zehner, a German artist and illustrator I like a lot, saying: “Our life is a big collage itself. We take things from our environment, combine them, and create our own identity“. Hearing her say that was such a relief! That way of seeing life is beautiful and helped me make peace with many internal conflicts I have regarding integration and belonging. Rather than static, our identity is dynamic as we continuously take pieces from here and there to create and transform it. As our identity expands, we develop and acquire new ways to express ourselves, our ideas, and our feelings.

Here I am, discovering Sweden through Latin lenses and mixing multiple languages while expanding my collage-life with new experiences, struggles, and reflections on self-identity.

And you, do you also mix up languages? which pieces are you adding to your collage?

*Cover picture by Peter van der Meulen on Unsplash